Universities draw up their agenda

Universities Australia’s first policy paper will include statements about how higher education can contribute more to the national economy and will contain findings of a study which showed the vast majority of Australian parents want their children to get a degree.

The draft paper is strictly under wraps on instructions from Universities Australia chairman
Glyn Davis
, also the vice-chancellor of The University of Melbourne, following the leaking of an earlier version to The Australian Financial Review.

That version canvassed contentious ideas such as raising student fees and imposing a minimum entry score for certain professional courses.

Professor Davis would not be drawn on details of the latest version of the policy paper but said “we want to get universities up on to the public radar screen and we want the next government, whoever they are, to see [them] as core [contributors], not as a problem they have to solve".

“We are pound-for-pound one of the great education nations on the planet so let’s build on that and let’s do it while we’re ahead before the other nations overtake us. Because that’s the risk."

There is a perception among politicians that vice-chancellors spend too much time holding their begging bowls out.

Since its inception, Universities Australia (the former Australian Vice-chancellors Council) has been trying to change that reputation.

While Universities Australia has always formed policies on certain issues, the policy paper will be the first to set a unanimously agreed direction for the sector as a whole.

Related Quotes

Company Profile

It will be used to lobby politicians in the countdown to the next federal election.

“What the policy will do is first argue about the importance of universities for the nation," Professor Davis said.

“So it’s not about us but what the nation wants to do and how universities are part of that bigger picture. It’s not all about what people should do for us, it’s what we’d like to do for others."

Getting 39 vice-chancellors to agree has no doubt been difficult.

“It’s unusual for a sector to put out a policy statement," Professor Davis said.

“We’ve had policy statements on various issues but we’ve never tried to articulate a vision of what we want to achieve and how we can best go about it.

Professor Davis said survey work conducted for the policy paper showed just how many Australians want their children to go to university.

“Now, overwhelmingly, families aspire for their kids to go to university. That’s a national social shift. They don’t necessarily want their children to go into professions that require a degree but it’s part of the life cycle. People see it as essential to their future."

One of Labor’s key higher education policies has been a national target for 40 per cent of 25 to 34-year-olds to have a bachelor degree or higher by 2025. In order to achieve the goal, the government has uncapped places, allowing as many students to enrol as universities will accept. The policy has weighed on the federal budget.

When the government announced it would delay research funding increases in October to help return the budget to surplus, Group of Eight chairman and University of New South Wales vice-chancellor
Fred Hilmer
said it was time to rethink the uncapped places policy: The government “could have saved $1 billion by limiting demand-driven funding to those with the ability to successfully complete and benefit from university education . . ."

But Professor Davis said there was broad support for the target.

“You could imagine a time where some states have pretty much got to the 40 per cent but others are still getting there so I wouldn’t be surprised if the government, any government, contemplated starting to deal with individual institutions," he said. “It’s not a recapping per say or return to the old system but it would require individual institutions to make their case."